Weighing AI’s Risks With Its Benefits to the Marketing Industry

The marketing industry and culture at large is adjusting to the sudden influx of large language model generative AI tools, such as ChapGPT, that could potentially alter the way we work, perform and do business. But whether those changes are perceived as positive or negative depends on who you ask.

For a group of more than 1,400 leaders in technology, academics and AI research, who signed an open letter on March 22 that called for a pause in AI development until better safety standards and oversight are in place, artificial intelligence can pose “profound risks to society and humanity.”

We’re talking more than college essay writing, of course. Warnings about unhinged AI experimentation have long been echoed by some of the letter’s more well-known signatories, including Elon Musk. But what of AI’s practical applications, and those for marketing purposes in particular?

Peter Prodromou, president of AI-focused marketing agency Boathouse Group, takes a more moderate point of view and supports practical uses for AI while simultaneously developing guidelines to follow, according to an AdExchanger podcast. He dishes on the difference between AI and machine learning, AI’s applications for social learning, and tips for avoiding companies that are merely attempting to capitalize on the trend.